


Pictures of the soul

by N8schatten



Series: A thousand lives, but our souls are the same. [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Idiots in Love, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:35:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24479584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N8schatten/pseuds/N8schatten
Summary: He was an oddity. Everyone on Gallifrey knew that, but his soul mark made him even more strange. Time Lords didn’t have soul marks, or soul mates. After all they changed their faces, their being and their character. The person you loved and cherished in one life could be the person you despised the most in your next. Hell, most marriages on Gallifrey only lasted one regeneration.
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/River Song, The Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith, The Doctor & Susan Foreman, The Doctor/River Song
Series: A thousand lives, but our souls are the same. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768171
Comments: 8
Kudos: 68





	Pictures of the soul

**Author's Note:**

> First part of many I hope. There are too few soulmate Au's with River and the Doctor. So I'm changing that. This Au is simple. Person A has a soul mark that symbolisms who Person B is.  
> If you have any ideas for this series, please feel free to comment, I will tag you if I write it!

**Pictures of the soul**

It’s been always there, on his chest. This colourful little thing. Almost like a tattoo. He knew Time Lords could choose to have Tattoos. His friend Corsair had one in every regeneration so far, but Corsair had chosen to have it. The Doctor never got to decide. He was an oddity. Everyone on Gallifrey knew that, but his soul mark made him even more strange. Time Lords didn’t have soul marks, or soul mates. After all they changed their faces, their being and their character. The person you loved and cherished in one life could be the person you despised the most in your next. Hell, most marriages on Gallifrey only lasted one regeneration. 

But of course, the Doctor had to be an exception. He had a soul mark. A little thing on his chest. Directly between his hearts. Some would say it was beautiful, but the Doctor had one major problem with it. The Sword in the middle. His soul mark was a big sword, with a red handle and a black blade. Little blue flowers grew around the blade and swirls of gold and green surrounded the handle. It was beautiful, in away, but the Doctor could only see the destruction and the harm a sword could do.

So he ignored it. He married his wife. He raised his children and spoiled his grandchildren. He was happy and did not once refuse to answer when one of his children or grandchildren asked about the funny little mark on his chest. He patiently explained what it was and what it meant. They were curious and asked him if he would search for this other person. He always told them he wouldn’t, because he was happy. 

Oh and he was. Not perfectly happy, to be honest. After all the other Time Lords still looked at him, like he was beneath them. Like he never could be enough, but he learned to life with it. Until the day that Susan showed him the little mark on her shoulder. 

His granddaughter had a soul mark. Another Time Lord, had a soul mark, maybe he wasn’t that different. He asked her if she wanted to find this other person. Susan didn’t answer the question for a long time. 

When she did, they left Gallifrey. They left and went to see the universe and all of space and time. Somehow they both forgot about searching for Susan’s soul mate.

In the end, Susan was found by him. A human, by the name of David Campbell. She was happy and that was enough. He left her with him, and knew. They would be happy.

He learned some lessons over the time. For one, his soul mark was always the same. No matter the regeneration. No matter the face. There was always the same little mark on his chest, just between his hearts. 

Another thing was that his soul mark was more than just a sword. Barbara once brought the same little flowers into the TARDIS that grew around the blade of the sword. She called them Forget-me-nots. He asked her about them and Barbara explained that on earth every flower had a meaning. Forget-me-nots stood for remembrance, good memories and true love. He liked that. He really liked that.

A few faces later, Sarah Jane got a glimpse on his mark after a particular bad adventure. Not even the scarf could hide it. Sarah Jane had squealed and the next thing he knew she had a book in her hands. It seemed that humans had collected a lot of information about soul marks. Those books explained almost every symbol possible. 

He learned that the Sword on his chest wasn’t something bad, well mostly. It stood for protection and courage and strength. He wasn’t sure if he likes aspects like power and authority, but it was better that the bloodshed he used to identify it with. 

Sarah Jane continued to read and compare his mark with the pictures in the book. Really he felt quite stupid, sitting there without a top. With Sarah Jane staring at his bare chest, but she wouldn’t let him move a bit.

After some time, she declared that the sword wasn’t just red and black. No, the handle was ruby red. They were protective stones that held back evil spirits. Ruby’s also meant to bring happiness and passion. No, he did not blush, but he didn’t let Sarah Jane continue to talk about it either. They never got back to the topic.

Things happened and time passed and suddenly Gallifrey was gone. He had a new face and was the last of his kind. He shattered every mirror in the TARDIS and tried very hard to not think about the mark on his chest. No matter the person, he wasn’t worth them.

He meet Rose and for a little while he thought, maybe she was the one. He loved Rose. Brilliant little human, but she showed him her soul mark just after he regenerated. It was on her ribcage. Two pocket watches liked by their chain. Both just out of focus and fusing with one other. One of them showed ten o’clock, the other one didn’t had any hands at all, but broken glass. He didn’t think about it. He loved Rose and that was all that mattered. After all he married his wife, despite his mark. 

Rose left and it hurt and he started to research soul marks. Onyx, the blade of the sword was onyx. Another protective stone. The books said something about absorbing negative energy and protecting the own energy. He wasn’t quite sure about that, but it was the other part that got his attention. Black onyx helped to develop emotional and physical strength and aided in times of stress confusion and grief. He could need that now. 

It took him all of ten minutes to know that Martha Jones was to good for him, he didn’t even needed to see her mark. 

Donna on the other hand…she was like a soul mate, but not a romantic one. She was his best friend, and he didn’t want her to be anything more. She probably would slap him.

Meeting River Song for the first time was…horrible. Not only the fact that she knew _him_ and his future, but she knew him name and…and…then she was death.

He tried not to think about it. He had saved her. She was alive in the data core. She was fine. He tried not to think, not to rub his hand over his chest where his soul mark was. He tried not to think about her eyes, a brilliant mix of colours. One of those colours a green. A green like the swirls on his chest.

Rose returned and Donna became Time Lord. Two of him and suddenly he knew what Rose’s soul mark meant. 

He was alone without friends and still he bumped into River. Again and again. He meets her on battle fields and in bars. Every time she was a little bit more like his soul mark. Protective and loving. Caring and cold. She was a force of nature. The first time he saw her in sunlight he hearts nearly stopped. It was on Asgard on a picnic blanket. Her hair glowed golden like the swirls in his chest. He nearly regenerated on the spot. He had found his soul mate. A woman, who was already death. Oh and it hurt like hell.

He regenerated again and meet Amelia Pond. A Scottish girl, with a crack in her wall and a name, like a fairytale. He got a glimpse of her soul mark when he finally returned twelve years later. It was on her neck. A roman sword beneath the symbol of infinity. He wondered what it meant. 

They travelled and they meet River Song. Who grinned and flirted, who made him blush and stutter. River Song, who was his soul mate. River Song, who was death. 

This brilliant infuriating woman. His hearts stuttered at the site of her. 

Stuttered of longing and fear. He didn’t want her to be his soul mate. He didn’t want more pain. He already lost so much and hurt so badly. He was afraid of letting her go and being alone forever.

The Pandorica opened and the Doctor erased himself from the universe. The last thing he saw was the pain in Rivers eyes. He wondered if she knew…yes of course she did.

Amy remembered and Rory did too. Rory the roman. The man who waited two thousand years for the woman he loved. The Doctor grinned, yes, Amy’s soul mark for Rory was a perfect match. 

He saw River there and they talked. They talked and the Doctor's eyes roamed every bit of skin she was showing. He couldn’t see any soul marks. Time passed, he got to know her. He fell in love and his hearts hurt at the memory of her in the library. 

He learned about River Song. He learned that she loved violets and knew almost everything about history. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but she drove better than him. He fell in love with her little smiles and her loud laughter. He fell in love with River Song, with Melody Pond, and suddenly the golden swirls weren’t just her hair any more. 

He watched her study for her exams took her to the places she needed to write papers about and he cared about her. He cached her whenever she jumped from a building or when ever she ran into a fight. They bantered and he loved it. 

The first time he was her soul mark was on their wedding night. Before that he never got to see it. River refused to show it to him and he knew she used reception filters to make sure he would never see it. It hurt in a way, her not trusting him to see it, but she had explained it once to him. Explained him that an older self of him had told her that it was important that he never saw it until the day they were married. 

He saw it after they left Calderon Beta. After the light of the stars wasn’t that bright any longer. He saw her soul mark for him in the light of the TARDIS in their bedroom. It took his breath away. It was there, on her chest, between her breasts right between her hearts. 

An hourglass. An ancient and fragile looking hourglass. He knew there was a pun in there, but he really didn’t care. The wood of the outer structure was golden like regeneration energy. The upper glass bulb was filled with stars and nebulas it almost looked like they moved. The lower bulb was cracked and there was a piece missing and the stars streamed out of it and painted constellations on her skin. He looked up at River who smiled at him. “Space and Time” She whispered and her fingers carefully brushed over his mark for her.

Later when River had fallen asleep and he too, was fighting with Morpheus. He tugged her a little bit closer and smiled into her hair. They laid chest to chest and their marks aligned. He thought about who much he loved River and that it didn’t mattered that she was getting closer and closer to her death. He just loved her. Their chests brushed and for a moment, he was sure their marks glowed and danced. The nebula’s in the upper bulb and the stars, stilling out of the lower bulb. They danced and swirled and glowed and his own mark glowed to. The golden swirls around the handle and the blue Forget-me-nots around the blade. 

He fell asleep before he could really think about it, but in the Darkness their marks glowed and danced. 

Painting them and their bedroom in the colours of their souls and love.


End file.
